Monday, February 26, 2007

Apologist for Evil

New Jersey local newsrag The Asbury Park Pressreprints a column from Gannett News Services' official apologist for Cuba, one Mr. DeWayne Wickham. He tells a tale of Cuba that even the boldest propoganda artist would hesitate to spin; I've highlighted some of the more incredible statements and qoutes:More than six months after Cuban President Fidel Castro "temporarily" ceded power to brother Raul, Cuba appears to be running on autopilot.The Galiano shopping district in Central Havana has a steady flow of Cubans. Some have money to spend in the "dollar stores" that offer high-priced consumer goods. But most are there simply to window shop or buy whatever they can afford in the poorly stocked pesos stores where most Cubans shop.The food shortages, the power blackouts, the desire for a better conditions and the widespread disdain among Cubans for the long-running American economic embargo are all part of the matrix of life in this country.Castro, the world's longest ruling head of government, may be in failing health, but that hasn't put this nation in a tailspin, as many in Washington and Miami had hoped."The Cuban revolution is completely transcendental," Ruben Remigio Ferro, the head of Cuba's Supreme Court, told me. "The revolution is bigger than Fidel. It won't end when Fidel's life ends."Based on Wicky's biography, he likes to sit down and dine with despots, so this bit of boot-lickery is no surprise:In February 1999, Wickham traveled to Cuba and had a 6-hour dinner meeting with Fidel Castro. A year later he returned to Cuba and met with Cuban people to gauge the impact of the U.S. embargo.Ready for some reality, Wicky? You'll get it, via Daimination!...here's your "transcendant revolution", jerk:...when independent librarians are sent to the gulags, certain confiscated books — and sometimes all books in their libraries — are ordered incinerated by the presiding judge. A biography of Martin Luther King was sent to the flames because, said the judge, it "is based on ideas that could be used to promote social disorder and civil disobedience." And the nonviolent King's own books have been burned.

Even works by Jose Marti, the 19th-century organizer of Cuban independence, have been incinerated. Maybe because of the pamphlet he wrote during his exile in Spain, planning the liberation of his homeland. Marti's pamphlet was about the horrors of political imprisonment in Cuba under a pre-Castro dictator.Among thousands of other incinerated "subversive" books and pamphlets are those books by George Orwell, Pope John Paul II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (particularly dangerous) and reports by Human Rights Watch.But hey! They can window-shop at the dollar stores! So life is good, and all problems can be traced back to the damned Yankees, huh?I feel for the Cubans; but boy oh boy, apologists like Wicky here are not helping them whatsoever...